Glenn Kessler reports in the WaPo (no link) that FBI interviews learned that, before he was hanged, Saddam Hussein said that he wanted the world to believe he had weapons of mass destruction as a deterrence to arch-enemy Iran. Ironically, the main beneficiary of Preznit Chimpy's invasion of Iraq happened to be Iran, allowing it to become an unchallenged force in the region, and alarming the Saudis and Jordanians, among other Arab countries.
Hussein also denounced Osama bin Laden as a "zealot" and said his government had no connections with al Qaeda. That rings true, since Hussein's Baathist Party has long been seen by radical theocratic Muslims -- such as al Qaeda -- as a corrupt secular obstacle to establishing an Islamic caliphate.
Meanwhile, Tuesday marked the withdrawal of U.S. troops from urban areas in Iraq. The Iraqi government, now friendly to Iran, designated the day as "National Sovereignty Day" as thousands celebrated the pull out in the streets of Baghdad and other cities. It was what Preznit Chimpy and The Dick had promised when we invaded Iraq, but not as we withdrew.
